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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23339965">Playing Emperor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crying, Dubious Consent, Edgeplay, Erotic Stabbing, Painplay, Self-Hatred, Torture, Verbal Humiliation, skekSil has a bad time, the skeksis are awful as usual</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:56:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,092</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23339965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>skekSil gets a summons to his emperor’s chambers. What happens upon his arrival is not at all the fun time he expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>skekSo/skekSil</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Playing Emperor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Oof<br/>Ok, this is the darkest shit I’ve written on here, and of course it’s for a couple of creepy bird bastards. I’m very cursed, ok? If you don’t like the tags, you can move along. I have no shame at this point. I just like torturing my favourite characters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>SkekSil was beyond giddy when he received the summons from his emperor. It had been tens of trine since he had been lucky enough to receive a summons to the emperor’s personal chambers, and he knew exactly what it meant. Oh yes, this was an excellent chance to get in emperor skekSo’s good graces.</p>
<p>However, the chamberlain wondered, why he was the one being called? Why now, after so many trine? Sure, the emperor had taken him many a time in their early years, but skekSo showed more interested in the more rugged and muscular of the skeksis. SkekMal had gotten a few summons. SkekVar and SkekUng as well, to the chamberlain’s chagrin. SkekSil was not stupid and he knew that neither skeksis nor gelfling would call him rugged in any sense of the word. So, then, why was he being called? What sort of encounter awaited him? <br/>The emperor’s chambers were as opulent as he remembered them, only slightly more weathered. The emperor was already nude and lounging on his bed when Sil entered. </p>
<p>“Come. Shut the door. Take off your clothes.” He stated with little decorum. </p>
<p>“Yes, my emperor.” Came Sil’s silky reply as he began to divest despite his concerns. Soon he had all layers removed and the emperor had yet to look up from the scroll he was perusing. Sil coughed lightly and So glanced up. He scowled and sighed.</p>
<p>“You’ve gotten fat.” </p>
<p>Well, that certainly wasn’t what Sil had expected. </p>
<p>“I—pardon chamberlain, sire. Do not mean to disappoint,” he replied, clutching his primary arms over his stomach. Usually such criticism wouldn’t phase him in the slightest, but he found the words carried much more sting when spoken by the one skeksis he wished to impress. </p>
<p>“Well, it’s too late for that now now isn’t it. On the bed, chop chop.” </p>
<p>SkekSo moved to the side to let Sil crawl up next to him. As soon as he got into a comfortable position, however, the emperor pounced, pinning him to the bed. </p>
<p>“Oh!” He squeaked and whimpered as the emperor bit down on one of his back spines. His secondary arms were quickly bound in a length of rope the emperor must have had stashed under the covers in preparation. His primary arms were wrangled similarly—Sil not attempting to struggle despite his surprise—and bound to the headboard of the bed.</p>
<p>“Here is how this will go. You will lay here and you will take what I give you. You will not pleasure yourself. You may moan or whimper as freely as you wish, but you will not talk. Do I make myself clear?” </p>
<p>Sil shivered under So’s piercing gaze. </p>
<p>“Quite, my emperor. Though silly Chamberlain is a touch confused—“</p>
<p>A sharp slap to his face cut off what he had been planning to say. SkekSo gave him a cold glare. </p>
<p>“Evidently it was not clear in your infinitesimally small mind that I told you not to speak!” the emperor hissed, “you will not try my patience again, Chamberlain.” </p>
<p>Sil opened his beak to assent, but quickly decided better of that and instead replied with a vigorous nod. So huffed and stood from the bed. Sil watched him stride towards a chest of drawers on the side of the room and pluck a variety of things from it, none of which Sil could identify from his position. That is, until he turned and Sil recognized a landstrider crop and an ornately wicked dagger. So delicately placed the items on the bedside table and retrieved a bottle of some gelatinous fluid from the table’s drawer. He then lifted a length of black silk from the drawer and smoothed it out between his palms. </p>
<p>So returned to his bed and clambered over Sil until the two were face to face. Sil gulped at the emperor’s scrutinizing gaze.</p>
<p>“Even under such circumstances, your eyes hold not a single shred of true emotion. I intend to change that by the end of the night, but your eyes are far too repulsive for me at the moment. I think I shall cover them. It will make my release so much easier without those pitiful, watery things staring up at me.” </p>
<p>At this, the emperor wrapped the silk around Sil’s eyes and tied a knot in the back, right where it would dig into his skull if he tried to lay his head back.</p>
<p>Sil had not realized until this moment just how much he valued his sight. Sight gave him knowledge. Sight showed him the secrets that only body language and subtle gestures gave away. Sight was a piece of his power, just as his silver tongue. The emperor had ripped both of these from his grasp and Sil found himself beginning to panic. What control did he have left? Scent, of course, but he noticed now that the room was filled with the cloying scent of perfume and sex. He wouldn’t be able to tell anything apart with the potency of the room’s scent as it was. That left sound. Sound, taste and touch. There was nothing to taste at the moment and he couldn’t exactly reach out to touch anything with all his arms bound, so Sil chose to focus on sound. He could hear the emperor rise from the bed and retrieve something from the table. The bed dipped, and he presumed the emperor had returned.</p>
<p>“I have had a terrible day, chamberlain. Do you know why that is? Well, to start, I could not sleep due to all the blasted noise Ekt and Ayuk were making. So, I decided to take a stroll around the castle. However, to my great disappointment, as I pass the throne room I see you sitting on my throne in my own robes!” The emperor bellowed in Sil’s face, “So, although I could have quite easily removed you from your seat and thrown you off the castle balcony, I am a gracious emperor and decided to give you a chance to make amends. Do you remember what you said when I spoke to you at dinner and asked what you had done the previous night? You said you had slept the whole night through! You lied to my face!” </p>
<p>The emperor’s fuming was followed by the crack of the landstrider crop and a sharp pain on the chamberlain’s soft breasts. He  screamed. </p>
<p>“You conceited, conniving worm!” </p>
<p>Another strike from the crop stung Sil’s chest. Then another, and another, and another until tears were stinging his eyes and he could hear the emperor panting above him. A whimper escaped him, half unconscious, subtly pleading for a reprieve from the beating. The emperor scoffed.</p>
<p>“I see your blindfold dampening. Do you feel any remorse for your actions yet?” he asked. </p>
<p>Sil did not. He could not. Skeksis had no capacity for remorse. </p>
<p>“Of course you don’t. A disgrace like you couldn’t fathom the concept of such a thing,” as though reading his mind, So continued, “in fact, you might believe our kind incapable of such emotion. Alas, you are wrong. Skeksis may have no sense of remorse by nature, but such emotions can be cultivated by force when required. This, Sil, is why you are here.” </p>
<p>Dread built in Sil’s stomach as the emperor spoke. Already his emperor had taken his sight and mobility. Would he also take his mind? How had he forgotten to consider his most precious sense: sense itself? SkekSo knew exactly what to do to pull him apart, mind and body. SkekSil had taken a step too far in his plots, a step that would now cost him what little scraps of power he held. </p>
<p>Sil felt a sharp pain in his side. He felt blood seep from a shallow cut and then the emperor’s tongue laving over the wound he inflicted.</p>
<p>“Interesting. Your blood is not as putrid as your words. Colour me surprised.” </p>
<p>The tip of the dagger ran across his chest in an icy trail before it was plunged into the opposite flank; a matching set of shallow wounds. Sil screamed and writhed as much as his restraints allowed. Again, once the dagger had left, the emperor laced his tongue over the wound until it had time to coagulate. Of course he wouldn’t let his bedmate’s blood mar his pristine sheets. Sil whimpered as the warm tongue left his side, leaving a stinging chill in its wake. </p>
<p>This process was repeated across Sil’s body until he was quaking with pain and dizzy with loss of blood. He heard himself whimpering as though he were in another body and noticed for the first time how shrill his voice sounded. </p>
<p>“What annoying sounds you make, chamberlain. And I find great pleasure in making my lovers mewl and moan. You certainly test the bounds of my preference with that awful voice of yours. Do the it down lest I be forced to bind your beak as well” the emperor warned. </p>
<p>Sil felt that same strange sense of shame he had felt when the emperor had insulted his body. How had he never noticed how grating he was? This was no good for gaining favour in the court. How on Thra had he managed to attain the amount of power he had when he was so irritating? So ugly? A fresh wave of tears threatened to dampen his blindfold and he heard the emperor chuckle.</p>
<p>“Ah, much better. Your sobs are so much more pleasing than your whimpers.”</p>
<p>SkekSo was pleasuring himself now, Sil could hear it. He was rocking his hips against Sil’s leg, his hard phalluses making a lewd sound as they ground against his skin. So drew his hands across the maze of cuts he had made as he ground against the chamberlain. Occasionally he ran a talon through one of the wounds making it bleed anew. These flashes of pain only served to heighten the chamberlain’s distress until he felt his voice breaking from the wails. So grabbed his beak.</p>
<p>“You may speak, skekSil, but only to answer this question: who do you bow to?” </p>
<p>“To-to you, sire.” Sil stammered, voice horse and thin from his cries.</p>
<p>“Yes,” the emperor moaned, “and what is your role in this castle, skekSil?” </p>
<p>“I am-I am chamberlain, sire—Ah!” Sil was cut off with a slash of claws to his face.</p>
<p>“Fool! That is your job, skekSil! Your role is to serve your emperor! You are the same as any skeksis. All of you are meant to serve me. And yet, one of you insists on shirking that duty to play the role of emperor himself! Such insolence! What qualities do you have that make you a better emperor? Speak up!” So shouted, hips snapping against Sil’s leg.</p>
<p>A few hours ago, Sil may have given this question serious pause for thought. He had believed himself capable of much. However, he knew even then that he could not say as much out loud. Now, though? Now he was bereft, devoid of worth. He was in agony and he had seen a side of himself he had never noticed. What could he possibly have to offer Thra as a leader, fat and irritating and conniving and insolent as he was? He felt terrible, to put it simply. Foolish. The weight of his mistake now clear in his eyes. If he had known the result of playing emperor was such horrid pain and self-loathing, he would never have done it.</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>So this was what remorse felt like. </p>
<p>“Ch...skekSil has none, sire. SkekSil is foolish skeksis. Please, sire. Please forgive. Such a foolish skeksis. Foolish, ugly, worthless skeksis. Please forgive.” He sobbed. </p>
<p>The emperor came with a moan and dug his talons into the chamberlain’s side until he screamed. So leaned down and clamped his beak around his throat, teeth tearing through the outer layers of flesh. </p>
<p>Sil must have passed out after that, because the next thing he knew he was lying in his own bed with three podlings staring up at him. For a split second he hoped it might have all been a horrible nightmare until the pain of his cuts hit him once more. </p>
<p>“Awake, sire?” One of the podlings asked. </p>
<p>“Yes. Why? Here? How?” He muttered in his delirium.</p>
<p>“Emperor told us to move. No blood on bed. Make sure lord chamberlain lived. You require anything of us?” </p>
<p>“No, podlings may go. Sil would like to rest now.” </p>
<p>With a nod, the three left as ordered. As soon as the door shut, Sil cried once more.</p>
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